British paper The Mirror has a fascinating interview with pop star Prince. Prince is a devout Jehovah’s Witness and a committed vegan. The journalist spends an evening at Prince’s mansion and it’s like he’s an anthropologist researching the lifestyle of eccentric filthy rich musicians. I guess the takeaway from this story is the fact that Prince will release his new CD, 20TEN, for free but only in The Mirror this Saturday. It sounds like the CD will both be available to subscribers and to purchasers in shops. It’s sure to sell out quicker than people can get their hands on it.

In the interview, Prince goes on about the Internet cutting into his profits and being “over.” I would snark that it’s Prince that’s over, not the Internet, but of course that’s not true. He makes incredible music and has a large fanbase. His wacky but mysterious persona works for him. It doesn’t help his cause at all to strongarm YouTube users for posting videos of their babies dancing to his songs.

He explains that he decided the album will be released in CD format only in the Mirror. There’ll be no downloads anywhere in the world because of his ongoing battles against internet abuses.

Unlike most other rock stars, he has banned YouTube and iTunes from using any of his music and has even closed down his own official website.

He says: “The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

[From The Mirror]

So what is Prince going to do when the tracks from this CD inevitably get leaked online? I’m sure they’re protected against copying, but someone will find a way around that. Did he somehow include tracking information that can pinpoint the exact location or store where the CD originated? I wouldn’t be surprised.

The Mirror used to have a video with previews of three of the new songs, but it’s since been removed. All I could find was this goofy parody of the Duchess Fergie’s scandal along with a clip playing in the background. (That’s at :57) I’m sure that will be taken down soon too.

The Internet isn’t over, but the old way of distributing music definitely is. Leave it to Prince to find a new way to go old school.

Update: Here’s a link to a video with clips of some of the songs. I’m not impressed as they sound very familiar and like Prince’s older work.

Prince is shown performing in Paris on 10/12/09, out in Paris on 10/5/09 (credit: Fame Pictures) and at Fashion Week on 10/6/09 (credit: PRPhotos). He’s 52!

Heather Mills says she isn’t done with her campaign to force the press to be nice to her. And she isn’t going about it the logical way; by doing good things and being a good person and not disgusting everyone with the way she moves her jaw like a cow chewing its cud. Heather still prefers the legal system, and forcing the press not to report on the fact that she’s an insane bitch.

Oh, and she’s going to rid the internet of all the lies about her. Because we all know how easy it is to get something unfavorable off the web.

Heather Mills has vowed to continue her high-profile battle against the British media.

The ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney has already taken legal action against a number of outlets after growing tired of reading “damaging” rumours about her personal life.

“I stopped reading stories about myself a number of years ago. I just thought ‘this is just a waste of time’, but recently I’ve been going through the internet, clearing up [rumours],” Mills told WENN.

“I’ve got five apologies so far from [the] British media and I’ve got many thousands to go. I plan to clear the internet so my daughter doesn’t read all the lies when she’s 12.”

Mills famously broke down in tears in a 2007 interview with GMTV, claiming that she had received “worse press than a murderer or paedophile” following her split from McCartney.

She later described her campaign as “cathartic” and thanked the public for their “amazing” support.

[From Digital Spy]

Hey Heather, just a little piece of basic internet info: once something’s on the interweb, you can never get it off. It always remains, somehow, somewhere.

During that infamous GMTV interview in 2007 Mills also said she’d considered killing herself because of how terribly the press treats her. It was blatantly manipulative, and you get the sense she’s just throwing out the worst, most dramatic threat she can think of.

This idea is novel in its simplicity, but if I ever got the chance to ask Heather Mills one question, it would be, “Have you ever thought of just being likable?” She could do away with the lawyers and the bad interviews if she just worked on her terrible personality. You can’t force people to like you.

Even if Heather wins a few more of her cases against the British press, she’ll never be happy. Sure, they won’t be able to say quite so many slanderous things, but Heather clearly wants to be liked – actually, more like adored and worshiped. And she can’t litigate her way into that. Not that she ever will be any of those things no matter what she does. But you’d think that – considering it’s obviously so important to her – she’d actually try. And the only way to accomplish that is to attempt likeability.

Or, you know, just not doing this with your face:

Heather’s mouth is shown at the Farm Sanctuary Gala 2008 at Cipriani’s Wall Street in New York last May. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Debbie Matenopoulos, one of the lucky ones who escaped The View, is currently a co-host of The Daily 10 on E! and finds her way onto the awards show red carpets for the network. Matenopoulos has been married to Jay Faires, a music executive, since 2003, and while they’ve been separated since March, Debbie was shocked to find out that her husband had filed for divorce… by reading about it online.

“I am extremely saddened by the dissolution of my seven-year relationship with my husband,” the host of E!’s Daily 10 tells PEOPLE.

“I am not a proponent of divorce and I believe in working things out,” says Matenopoulos, a two-time Emmy nominee and former co-host of The View. “So you can only imagine my extreme sadness and disillusionment when I was informed of my husband’s divorce proceedings, much like you were, by reading them online.”

[From People]

Taylor Swift should be shown this story so she will stop talking about how her teenage boyfriend, Joe Jonas, broke up with her via voicemail. At least Jonas had the relative decency to make an attempt to let Taylor know himself. It’s somewhat difficult to believe that Matenopoulos and Faires were actively trying to work things out if he would covertly file for divorce. However it still shows extreme lack of character, regardless of the situation, to file and leak it on the internet to let your soon-to-be ex aware.

Faires cited the tried and true irreconcilable differences and asked that Debbie not receive spousal support. Debbie and Jay were together for seven years, like Madonna and Guy, like me and my first husband. What is it about that 7-year itch? I’ve gone through it and I can’t even tell you what it was about that seventh year that makes you take re-stock of your relationship and often find that it’s not cutting it. To be honest, I don’t know how anyone could put up with Debbie Matenopoulos for seven months let alone seven years.

Debbie Matenopoulos is shown an ovarian cancer research fundraiser in the Hamptons on 7/26/08. Credit: MLM/Fame Pictures

More and more people are finding love online, making meeting on the Internet more popular than meeting people at clubs for romance. Scores of children will now be hearing how mommy and daddy met in a chatroom or an online dating service. It’s become the single’s bar of the new generation.

81-year old assisted living resident Wu Jieqin, of China, and his 58-year old bride have something to tell the new generation, though.

“The Internet doesn’t belong to the young alone,” he told the paper. He said he had been using the Internet since 1998.

“There are no rules against old people seeking love online.”

The couple met after Wu, lonely since his divorce a decade ago, put a lonely hearts notice on a Chinese website last year with the help of a student.

Not that the feisty retiree with thin gray hair was not picky.

“As internet mates of his own age did not suit him, he set his sights on a woman in her forties or fifties,” the report said.

Wu said over 50 women responded positively to his ad, including prospects from the United States, Australia and the Ukraine. Wu met several but things clicked only when with Jiang, a retired railway worker from southwest China’s Sichuan province.

[From Reuters]

But there was something that stood in the lovebird’s way. And it’s an age-old story, no pun intended, but nevertheless appreciated. The bride’s parents, aged 85 and 86 were opposed to the romance because they felt the groom was too old for their daughter. But Jiang convinced them that he was young at heart and he wouldn’t take her away from home.

“His voice is very youthful. Not like an 80-year-old,” Jiang told the paper. “He’s very romantic.”

Wu plans to move to Sichuan to be with his new bride.

He likened their love to two well-meshed gears.

“As long they up to scratch, they can keep turning forever, and you don’t have to care whether they’re old or new,” he said.

[From Reuters]

Yes, the secret to a lasting and loving marriage is being up to scratch, and probably generous amounts of oil to keep down the friction. It makes perfect sense!

I think it’s pretty funny that he wouldn’t take any applicants his own age. Even in his 80′s the guy can’t keep his eyes off the pretty young things, like 58-year old Jiang. Wu is nearly a quarter of a century older than his young bride. How scandalous!

Like Romeo and Juliet, Wu and Jiang defied the odds to be together. But unlike the star crossed lovers, they have the support of her parents, so these crazy kids are going to make it. I’m a sucker for a romantic internet story.

Header photo from The Beijing News via Straits Times

Filmmaker Michael Moore is doing something pretty novel: he is releasing his entire next film “Slacker Uprising” on the internet. There will be no theatrical release, and the film isn’t being streamed; it will be available on BlipTV. Everyone can download the entire thing online, and Moore’s not asking for any compensation in return – except for a record voter turnout.

Firebrand filmmaker Michael Moore will release his latest documentary exclusively on the Internet for free on September 23, eschewing a traditional theatrical rollout, he said on Thursday.

“Slacker Uprising” documents Moore’s 62-city tour of key swing states during the 2004 U.S. presidential election, when he tried to convince young non-voters to give voting a shot.

“This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,” Moore said in a statement. “The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November.”

“Slacker Uprising,” budgeted modestly at over $2 million, was funded by Moore along with movie executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who hold international rights, said a spokesman for Moore.

It marks his follow-up to the healthcare expose “Sicko,” which earned just $24.5 million at the North American box office last year, far short of the $119 million haul for his 2004 political blockbuster “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

[From Reuters Canada]

It’s a pretty interesting concept. I’m assuming they’ll be some sort of advertising and someone will make some money somehow, but who knows? Reuters does make an interesting point in that Moore’s last film didn’t make much money at the box office. Maybe he thought he’d have a better chance of getting his message out this way, and that was more important to him. It’s all speculation, but interesting to wonder about. Perhaps this is where more mainstream films are headed as well.

Here’s the trailer for “Slacker Uprising.”

We’ve all got a few things we don’t ever want to think about. Things so horrible that our conscious minds cannot handle them and they’re shoved into the back like some kind of Freudian nightmare. How many bugs crawl into your ears or open mouth while you’re sleeping. The thought of your parents having really dirty sex. Anything having to do with Carrot Top or Joe Rogan. And the worst of all: the thought of Tony Romo pleasuring himself to Jessica Simpson’s webcam stripteases. I’ll wait while you stop shuddering.

According to the ever disreputable news source The Sun, Jess keeps Tony from wandering while they’re apart by visually titillating him via what I can only hope is a super secure T1 line.

Sexy Jessica Simpson thrills her lover — by stripping on the web.

The Dukes Of Hazzard actress uses a webcam to transmit red-hot routines to Dallas Cowboys’ Tony Romo — to keep alive their romance while they are apart.

A pal said: “Jess has no problem showing Tony her favourite ‘Pussycat Dolls’ routine. She will dance in front of her camera until she makes her man happy.”

But the 28-year-old Texan, who has been dating the quarterback since November, makes sure her strips are for his eyes only.

The pal added: “Jess does get paranoid, making sure Tony doesn’t have any of his Cowboys buddies peeking in on the show.”

[From The Sun]

I’m not saying for a second that this story is true. But… IF it is and I were Tony, I’d seriously consider investing in some type of program that records webcam feeds. Because heaven forbid he gets some sort of injury and can’t play football, or maybe ten years down the line he blows all his cash – a cache of Jessica Simpson nudie footage could be worth a hell of a lot of money. I’m talking NFL retirement salary kind of money. Something tells me this is the real reason Tony and Jessica got back together. And frankly, that’s just sensible financial planning.

Here are Jessica and Tony after lunch at Dallas Primo restaurant and outside Tony’s condo in Dallas on May 26th. Images thanks to Fame.

France has passed will vote next week on a new bill that makes it a crime to promote extreme thinness. Breaking the law is punishable with actual jail time. If the bill is passed, it will be the first anti-anorexia law in the world. Although several fashion houses and magazines have created their own standards to promote a more healthy body weight, never before has it been potentially legislated by a government.

The world’s first use of the law to tackle eating disorders is broadly aimed at the media and fashion world, but especially at the websites and blogs of the so-called pro-ana movement. While many are support groups, others promote starvation as a “life-style choice”, with girls and young women posting their wasting images as “thinspiration” for others. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have come under pressure in Britain and other countries recently to ban their pro-ana entries.

Last month a website that originated in France caused an outcry for encouraging children as young as 9 to embrace plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure. The Miss Bimbo site invites users to create a virtual doll, keep it “waif thin” with diet pills and buy it breast implants and facelifts. The website attracted 1.2 million players in France.

[From the Times Online]

Breaking the proposed law could result in fines as high as $48,000 and up to a two year prison sentence for members of the fashion world that “provoke a person to seek excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged restriction of nourishment” if it risks damaging a person’s health or could cause death. The sentence is raised to $70,000 and three years in jail if someone dies.

Some experts and fashion leaders oppose the Bill, which is expected to be passed by Parliament within months. “You do not solve this kind of problem with the law but with understanding,” Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer, said. Didier Grumbach, head of the French Couture Federation, said it was not up to the state to legislate on beauty and aesthetic criteria.

[From the Times Online]

This is an interesting idea, though it seems like there are still a lot of holes in the law bill. For instance, let’s say Teenage Girl A dies from anorexia. Like most teenagers, she read a lot of fashion magazines which have very thin models. She also occasionally visited pro-ana websites. Who is responsible? And how can the government nail down WHICH magazines? And who at that magazine is the criminal? What about websites – is every pro-ana website Teenage Girl A ever visited responsible for her death? Is the responsible party the person who owns the website, or their ISP? It seems like an interesting start, but judges will probably need to figure out exactly how to define “excessive thinness,” and how to hold people accountable.

The header photo is from Italian fashion line Nolita. They used a picture of an anorexic woman on leaflets they handed out during Italy’s fashion week that say “No Anorexia.” This image was banned in France.

Update by Celebitchy: Thanks to Bellatrix for letting us know that this law has not yet passed yet, and is only a proposed bill. She writes:

“The law has not been voted yet. It is still just a law proposition. It will be voted next week on Tuesday (April 15).
I thought you’d might like a check about that, so here’s a link to an online version the “Le Monde” newspaper” [link is in French]

“The law proposition has been made by Valérie Boyer, a UMP (the party of the French president) politician. Needless to say that “la gauche” (the left wing) is united against this law as it does not treat anorexia as an illness and will not solve it.” [E-mail from Bellatrix]

It turns out Prince fancies himself an artist. I fancy him a giant, shrieking hamster with a funny shaped guitar who used to have a symbol for a name. Well, the precious “artiste” is flaming mad at the internet. He’s filing suit against YouTube, eBay, and a bunch of other big internet sites to “reclaim his art on the Internet.” I really think it’s pretentious of him to call what he does art, but for some reason I have a real hatred of Prince that I’m going to try to push aside while I write this article. Prince thinks that a site like YouTube can keep his videos off the internet, because they can keep other equally offensive content off their site.

“YouTube … are clearly able (to) filter porn and pedophile material but appear to choose not to filter out the unauthorized music and film content which is core to their business success,” a statement released on his behalf said.

[From Yahoo]

If YouTube can filter out offensive, useless crap like porn, why can’t they filter out offensive, useless crap like Prince’s videos? Whatever PR flaky wrote that statement was just asking to be made fun of. Prince is really biting the hand that feeds him. When was the last time he had a hit album or even a hit single? I think he should take whatever crumbs he can get. YouTube can also be a great way for an artist to market and promote themselves for next to nothing. And frankly, that could only help Prince.

“YouTube responded by saying it was working with artists to help them manage their music on the site. ‘Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better,’ said YouTube chief counsel Zahavah Levine. ‘We have great partnerships with major music labels all over the world that understand the benefit of using YouTube as another way to communicate with their fans.’”

[From Yahoo]

Along with YouTube, Prince is suing eBay and a website called Pirate Bay, a torrent-based site that lets users illegally download music, movies, games, and applications. I understand suing Pirate Bay, as they help you search for illegal content. Torrents are kind of confusing, but my best, quick summary is that the sites you find torrents on don’t host them, and you download the content in small packets of information from several places. In terms of eBay… that seems a little unwise. They’re not handing out intellectual property for free or anything. People have apparently been using Prince’s image on coffee mugs, wall clocks, mouse pads, and other equally useless crap that no one cares about.

“‘Prince strongly believes artists as the creators and owners of their music need to reclaim their art,’ the statement added. British company Web Sheriff has been hired to help coordinate the action. ‘In the last couple of weeks we have directly removed approximately 2,000 Prince videos from YouTube,’ said Web Sheriff managing director John Giacobbi. ‘The problem is that one can reduce it to zero and then the next day there will be 100 or 500 or whatever. This carries on ad nauseam at Prince’s expense,’ he told Reuters. He said his company had also removed around 300 items from eBay, where whole lines of pirated goods trading on Prince’s name had appeared, including clocks, socks, mugs and key rings.”

[From Yahoo]

Prince, if there’s someone out there that wants to buy your face on a coffee mug from eBay, let them. They probably like you enough to have bought a few of your CDs too. YouTube is generally fan-based. It’s probably not super-wise to piss off the last 12 fans you have. Sorry, my seething dislike is boiling through again. If nothing else, this stuff is hard to stop. It seems best to work with the companies (not Pirate Bay, but the others) to try to put your content on there yourself legally. If it’s on the site, that means there’s a market for it and people want it. Instead of suing them, why don’t you work together? If you go to YouTube, you can find official videos from lots of artists and major networks. That way everyone is happy and you don’t look like a prissy little metallic-covered hamster. Sorry, it slipped through again.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Prince at the Bourne Ultimatum UK Premiere. Images thanks to PR Photos.